Senior Thermal Engineering Leader - Liquid & Air Cooling

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 163,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in San Jose, CA seeks a Thermal Engineering Technical Leader to lead design, simulation, validation and production-readiness of liquid and air-cooled thermal solutions for high‑performance networking and compute platforms.

The role partners with hardware design, manufacturing and supplier engineering to evaluate and implement cooling technologies, define design parameters, and drive scalable solutions across next‑generation ASIC, optical and power systems.

Qualifications

• BS in materials, mechanical, or chemical engineering; MS preferred.
• 8+ years in thermal/mechanical design for electronics.
• Direct experience with liquid cooling: cold plates, manifolds, pumps, CDUs.
• Strong knowledge of air-cooled solutions: heat pipes, vapor chambers, TIMs.
• Hands-on validation with thermal data acquisition.
• Proficient in CFD and test correlation.
• Quick learner, adaptable, research-oriented.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, simulation, validation, and production readiness of liquid and air-cooled thermal solutions.
• Own modeling, simulation, validation workflows, and performance testing.
• Collaborate with suppliers, ODMs and internal teams to evaluate new cooling technologies.
• Define design parameters and correlate testing with simulation models.

Skills

Thermal design

CFD (simulation)

Thermal validation

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Materials Science/Mechanical/Chemical Engineering

MS preferred

Tools

CFD software

Thermal data acquisition tools

Thermal simulation tools

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. in San Jose, CA seeks a Thermal Engineering Technical Leader to lead design, simulation, validation and production-readiness of liquid and air-cooled thermal solutions for high‑performance networking and compute platforms.

The role partners with hardware design, manufacturing and supplier engineering to evaluate and implement cooling technologies, define design parameters, and drive scalable solutions across next‑generation ASIC, optical and power systems.